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Kerry: Going to Congress not temporary victory for Assad

Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday said he does not believe seeking congressional authorization for military action against Syria has handed Syrian President Bashar Assad a temporary victory.

After President Barack Obama "announced his decision, officials in Damascus were saying that the president had flinched, had made a joke of the American administration,” Wallace said on "Fox News Sunday." “A newspaper out in the streets of Damascus today calls this, quote, ‘the start of the historic American retreat.’ Haven't you handed Syria and Iran at least a temporary victory, sir?”

“I don't believe so at all,” Kerry replied. “And that is in the hands of the Congress of the United States. The president has made his decision. The president wants to stand up and make certain that we uphold the international norm, that we do not grant impunity to a ruthless dictator to gas his own people. Anybody who saw those images, anybody who know focuses on the evidence that I just gave you about signatures of sarin in the hair and blood samples of the first responders -- I mean, first responders died. People who went to help the people who were hurt, died in this case.”

Assad is a man “who has committed a crime against humanity,” Kerry said.

“I can't imagine that the Congress of the United States will not recognize our interests with respect to Iran, Israel, Jordan, Turkey, our friends in the region, the Syrian people, the opposition,” Kerry said. “America's credibility is on the line here, and I expect the Congress of the United States to do what is right and to stand up and be counted, and I think that the Assad regime needs to recognize that they have refocused the energy of the American people on him, on his regime, on his lack of legitimacy to govern, and on the ways we will support the opposition in order to see that the people of Syria can choose their future in an appropriate way.”